Bangladesh ends curfew amid unrest

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DHAKA, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Bangladesh's former central bank governor, Fakhruddin Ahmed, was sworn in Friday as the head of a new interim government, an official at the presidential palace said.

This comes a day after Iajuddin Ahmed -- the head of the interim caretaker government and the country's president -- declared a state of emergency in the densely populated country ahead of national elections, and resigned from his post head of the caretaker government shortly thereafter.

Iajuddin Ahmed remains president of the country, however.

The state of emergency decree prompted a curfew, but police said it has been lifted and regulations spelled out in the decree have been relaxed.

As a result of the decree, the president's staff ordered satellite-based private TV channels to stop showing news and talk shows. Newspapers also were ordered to stop publishing political news.

State-run television had been the only one allowed to continue its programming.

While the TV channels have generally complied, some TV news ticker crawls have been running, and newspapers have generally defied the government order.

Iajuddin Ahmed had said that given the state of the nation -- which has seen violent demonstrations in the past few months -- the elections cannot be held as scheduled on January 22.

As a result, the election commission has stopped work on the balloting plans, an official at the commission said. Analysts believe it will take months for an election to be held.

Iajuddin Ahmed also said the army was called in to assist in controlling the violence, prompting fears of another military rule in the country.

There have been several days of violent protests in Dhaka in which demonstrators clashed with police, who used tear gas and rubber bullets on the crowds. Dozens were injured.

Since October, 45 people have been killed in political-related fighting.

The recent protests and a three-day transportation strike were organized by an alliance led by the main opposition party, the Awami League.

That party threatened to boycott the elections because it believed the original caretaker government was biased toward the other main party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Satinder Bindra in New Delhi contributed to this repport.